Roy Sommer is back with Sharks; David Cunniff departs

Friday

Jun 20, 2014 at 10:46 PMJun 20, 2014 at 10:53 PM

By Bill Ballou TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Players come and go, but one thing never changes about the Worcester Sharks — coach Roy Sommer.

The dean of American Hockey League coaches and the all-time leader in games coached, will be back for a ninth season running things behind the Sharks bench. He is the only head coach the franchise has had.

Sommer has coached the San Jose Sharks' AHL affiliates for 16 seasons. He broke in as coach of the Kentucky Thoroughblades, moved to Cleveland when that team relocated and came to Worcester when the Barons moved here for the 2006-07 season.

One thing will change, though. The only associate coach Sommer has had here is leaving. David Cunniff will not return as he seeks to move up in the profession.

"It's time for me to grow as a coach," Cunniff said. "I've talked to a number of teams about jobs — a head coach in the AHL would be ideal — and I'd enjoy being an assistant in the NHL.

"Three years ago, I was very close to getting the job as assistant coach in San Jose, but they wound up hiring Larry Robinson," Cunniff added. "I understood that — it's hard to argue with a team when it has a chance to hire a Hall of Famer."

Cunniff spent 12 seasons with Sommer, going back to the team's days in Cleveland.

The Sharks have yet to name a replacement for Cunniff as Sommer's assistant.

San Jose is bringing back Charlie Townsend for a second season as video coaching assistant. The development coaching staff includes returnees Corey Schwab, Mike Ricci, Bryan Marchment and Dirk Graham.

Sommer broke the league record for most games coached late last season. His number stands at 1,268. He has 576 coaching victories, fourth most in league history. Sommer's record in Worcester is 298-257-73. He coached Worcester to the Atlantic Division title in 2009-10, but the Sharks have missed the playoffs in each of the last four seasons.

His 298 victories are by far the most by a Worcester AHL coach. None of the four IceCats coaches — Jimmy Roberts, Greg Gilbert, Don Granato or Steve Pleau — had as many as 200.

According to figures provided by San Jose, Sommer and Cunniff have combined to develop players taken in the draft since 2003 who have combined to skate in 6,003 NHL games. That is second among the 30 NHL teams.

"San Jose has been a great organization to coach in," Cunniff said, "and I've been fortunate. They told me I was a great coach, more than just an AHL assistant, and it's time for me to see what's out there."

Sommer, and whoever his new assistant is, will have at least one very familiar face back in 2014-15. The Sharks have re-signed Jimmy Bonneau to an AHL contract. This will be his fourth season in Worcester. It was pretty obvious Bonneau would be coming back late last season when he was a healthy scratch for the final six games. Not playing in those games kept him at the 320-game threshold for his career and allowed him to remain an "exempt" player under the AHL's veteran rule.

One longtime Sharks player who definitely will not be back is goalie Harri Sateri, who is opting to play overseas in the KHL for 2014-15. Sateri played parts of four seasons with Worcester and ranks third on the franchise's all-time list in most goaltending categories behind Al Stalock and Thomas Greiss.